HOLMES: What’s coming down the Pike

Sunday

Aug 21, 2016 at 6:00 AM

If you ride on Massachusetts’ most important highway, you’ve seen tomorrow’s toll-takers taking shape.

Rick Holmes Opinions/Mass. Political Editor @HolmesAndCo

If you ride on Massachusetts’ most important highway, you’ve seen tomorrow’s toll-takers taking shape. Those silvery structures spanning the Mass. Pike are part of the All Electronic Tolling (AET) system through which, come October, drivers’ money will be taken without so much as a gruff “thank-you” from an overpaid state employee.

The “gantries,” as they are called, have lights, cameras and circuitry on top, which will deduct money from your EZ-Pass account as you drive through at highway speed. If you don’t have an EZ-Pass transponder, it will take a picture of your license plate and you’ll be billed for the tolls, with a surcharge added to pay for the state’s trouble.

But there’s something missing from the gantries. I don’t see any signs telling drivers that money has just been sucked out of their accounts, let alone how much money is deducted at each gantry.

My suspicion is that state transportation officials would rather not remind Pike users they are being dinged every few miles. Regular Pike users are well aware that we are paying for the use of our highway, while those who use other interstates ride for free. Why rub it in?

As for how much we’ll be paying at each gantry, that’s still up in the air. We know it will be different, since the gantries aren’t lined up with the Pike exits where tolls are collected now. A consultant hired by MassDOT is expected to make toll recommendations at a meeting in Boston Aug. 22, and the law requires a bunch of public hearings before new tolls are set. Under a Pike tradition going back more than 50 years, complaints about tolls at these hearings are dutifully logged by Pike employees and then ignored.

But there’s already good news for some Pike users. The gantries have been arranged to provide free rides for those entering and exiting the Pike around Springfield and Worcester. You’ll be able to get on the Pike in Ludlow and get off in Westfield - a trip that costs 50 cents today - without going under a gantry. A short trip from the Millbury exit to Auburn exit costs a quarter now, but will be free when the AET switch is turned on in October.

There are no such favors for Pike users in MetroWest, which has been a cash cow for state transportation agencies since before the Big Dig. Gantries in Hopkinton, Southborough, Framingham and Weston guarantee we’ll get no free rides.

Why the free rides in Springfield and Worcester? There’s plenty of room between Ludlow and Westfield where you could put a gantry or two if the state wanted all Pike users to pay their fair share. But in a phone interview last week, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack would only say the gantry locations were determined before Gov. Charlie Baker took office in January 2015 and that she didn’t know the rationale.

MassDOT promises it won’t cost any more to drive from the New York line to Boston under AET than it does now. But the consultant was also told to make sure the Pike generates at least as much revenue as it currently brings in. So someone’s going to have to make up the revenue lost to all those free trips in Worcester and Springfield. Guess who that will be?

There are other issues with the new system. Privacy advocates don’t like the idea that MassDOT knows where and when they traveled on the Pike, and could share that with private firms or public agencies. That’s a big reason why some people have resisted the convenience of paying through an EZ-Pass transponder.

The gantries will also be recording the speed of those passing below. Officials say that data is necessary for the cameras to get clear pictures of license plates, not for enforcement of the speed limits.

Then there’s the ease with which, under the new system, MassDOT might adjust the tolls. With a few clicks on a computer in Boston, could the state jack up tolls to cover a revenue shortfall? Charge a little extra on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving? Transportation experts have long advocated “congestion pricing” - charging higher tolls during rush hour - to encourage use of mass transportation. That way Pike users who don’t have the luxury of showing up for work an hour or two late would have to pay more for the privilege of sitting in rush-hour traffic.

Pollack assured me that nobody at MassDOT will be arbitrarily fiddling with the tolls. Any adjustments will first have to go through a public hearing process and be approved by the MassDOT board.

As for signs telling drivers their pockets are being picked as they speed past the gantries. “We are looking into the issue,” Pollack said, and it may be complicated by federal regulations on signage on the Interstate Highway System.

My preference would be signs with toll amounts carved in granite, making it more difficult for them to be arbitrarily raised. Better yet, take down the gantries as well as the tollbooths and give everyone the same free ride.

Rick Holmes writes for Gatehouse Media and the MetroWest Daily News. He can be reached at rholmes@wickedlocal.com. Like him on Facebook at Holmes & Co., and follow him @HolmesAndCo.